JOHNSTON, Iowa — Accusations are swirling in Johnston after books from a Little Free Library were thrown away and replaced with bibles and crucifixes.
In a now-deleted Facebook post in the Johnston (Iowa) Parents Group, a woman made a post "@ the person throwing away books from the little libraries and replacing them with specific material, please stop."
In a private message with that woman on Facebook, she clarified the thrown-away books were replaced with bibles.
This recent incident at Terra Park was not the first time books were thrown away from Little Free Libraries in the city.
That same woman alleged it also happened last fall.
Sara Hayden Parris, the founder of Annie's Foundation, a non-profit that makes sure communities have access to books with diverse characters and subjects, said hearing of the incident was upsetting.
"We were kind of disturbed I guess at the fact that someone was taking away other reading material options and replacing them with only one," Hayden Parris said.
She noted she isn't upset bibles were placed in the free library, it's that other books were thrown away to make room that is the upsetting part.
She said her group immediately created a call to action on their Facebook page to replenish those books.
They asked people to fill those libraries up themselves or donate to her nonprofit so they can do it.
Hayden Parris said those posts were also a way to try and prevent this from happening again.
"If we got the message out and people could see that the community was largely disapproving of that, that they might be like oh maybe this isn't the best way to get my message out," Hayden Parris said.
The woman Local 5 private messaged on Facebook said some of the bibles were removed to make way for the other books to come back, and then donated to other organizations.
Local 5 also reached out to the Little Free Library organization to see if something like this had happened in other states, and have heard no response yet.